08 February, 2011

We had our little photo studio going, so I asked Alec to shoot some of the staff bikes currently on site:

Alec's VO Rando

Robert's custom 650b Rando, built by Robert.

Trygve's brand new Polyvalent, just finishing up the build.

Kyle's Motobecane Le Champion fixie. Kyle also has a Polyvalent at home.

Colin's Raleigh Portage, a rare 650b production bike from an English company.

Colin's VO Mixte, a brand new project.

Alec's Crosscheck all-arounder.

This reminds me that VO is not a bad place to work. Staff members get parts and frames at cost, as well as lots of free prototypes and samples to test. So there are always a few cool builds in progress here.

I'm curious about Alec's Crosscheck all-arounder. I've often heard that the handling of high trail bikes with front loads is not very desirable. Since the Crosscheck is a pretty high trail bike, I was wondering how the front loading works for Alec?

Anon 2:40: the crosscheck handles a lot worse at low speeds with any weight at all in the bar bag - think "wheel flop." But it works, and I've used it a whole lot, and at high speed it stabilizes, but the inertia makes it hard to change lines. I don't particularly love the handling without a load either, but it's a tough and versatile bike and we've had our times together.

Tim D, Dominic Dougherty: It's not a bike burrito - it's a swatch of reclaimed canvas duck that I sewed up into a tool roll

Jimmythefly, Ron Alford: Good spotting job! The box holds a bridge rectifier connected to 4 a AAA battery (series) bank with a USB plug on the other end. Charges batteries & iPhone off of the dynamo.

Jimmythefly: yes: those are the new dynamo hub. I've been bogarting -errr- testing the silver one for some time now. The black is a second generation prototype, but the final ones will be silver.

The Raleigh Portage did not have anything at all to do with the English Raleigh company.

It was designed by "Raleigh USA", who had simply bought the rights to market bikes in America under the Raleigh name. I believe it was a subsidiary of (believe it or not)Huffy. Yes, Huffy. We used to call them "Ruffy's".

Anyway, it was built in Taiwan or China before Taiwan or China had become very good at building bikes (compared to Japan). The Portage was at the higher end of the line and the quality was somewhat better than the lower-priced models. The market for touring bikes in the mid-late 1980's had unfortunately all but disappeared, and to add the oddball tire size only further limited it's appeal. Nowadays of course they are desirable. Back then, well, they were a hard sell to put it mildly. I bet that Raleigh USA sold the vast majority of those bikes at the end of the season at "closeout" prices to dealers.

Nice collection of builds. I've had a CC for about 4.5 yrs and it's been through a lot of changes. The CC is a great bike that's very versatile. Don't underestimate it's capabilities. It's also best not to perseverate on it's handling, just throw a leg over it and head down the road. I'll always have a soft spot for the CC as it's the first bike I used for bike camping and introduced me to the world of 700x>25 tires.

Great post.I loved Alec's take on his 'touring cross-check' when I visited a few months ago. Those shifters are shameless and rightly so, maybe that will catch on after this post.

Here's my current build. It's a 650B take on a 'sport touring/city bike'. Built with the Bridgestone XO-1 in mind. It's my main bike here in Philadelphia. Took these pictures just now, just for this post. Enjoy!

how is that supernova mounted on the rando bike? is it upside down from the front rack? if so, have you had any issues with water getting into the housing? i've been looking into getting a supernova and have been thinking about different ways to mount it with a front rack/bag setup. thanks!

I love the Raleigh Portage. I also am a Portage owner - my wife and I bought a pair of them in 1987 and we still have them and ride them a lot. It's a superb all purpose "country" bicycle. Thanks for posting your photo, Colin.

Don't get me wrong - the crosscheck has been good to me, and it's very versatile, but it's not great at any specific task.

The supernova is a warranty replacement for one that quit working in Iceland. That one was mounted right side up, but it was an early one and the seals have been redone since and I'd be very surprised if I had any problems with water. You're not supposed to mount them upside down, supernova says it'll let water in and it'll make the beam real funny on an asymmetrical lamp, but since it fit under the rack better upside down, I thought I'd try it. It's on a VO rack to light bracket on a Rando rack. There hasn't been much rain here, but the roads have been wet from snow. No problems yet.

Honor - neat ride. Are you the guy that came down to help a friend get a Mixte?

Here's my VO Polyvalent. I went a little nuts on it and copper plated the fork and rear triangle and refinished it with gun blue and a clear powdercoat. It's my daily commuter and go-to tourer. It really is polyvalent. Great ride - thanks for putting it out there!

I think a Raleigh Portage bike was made by Raleigh USA or am I wrong? The article reads: "Colin's Raleigh Portage, a rare 650b production bike from an English company.", so English in that Raleigh is the parent company but perhaps, somewhat American as well.